SINGAPORE - From the poems of a young boy who cannot speak to untold stories of rural life in Myanmar, a new series by Singapore publisher Ethos Books is distilling young voices not usually heard in the literary canon into slim reads that they hope will "knock your socks off in the span of a train ride".

The Orbit series launched this month with three debut books: Notes After Terawih, based on the first-time Ramadan prayer observations of a young Singaporean Muslim; Giving Alms, three short stories by a Myanmar teacher; and A Tiny Space, written by an autistic boy and his family in Singapore.